Alucard:"This castle is a creature of Chaos. It may take many incarnations." Alucard(Translated):"This castle is a creature of Konami. It has to change to keep the game fresh and new."
Kotori Birb Like mentioned in the video, this first battle is a retelling of Rondo of Bloods final boss. In SotN, you can easily defeat him because Richter is just too damn powerful and has much better control compared to Rondo of Blood. "And thats how i easily defeated Count Dracula once and for all" is in fact bullshit, because the final boss of RoB is much harder. SotN made it look like Dracula was just a pushover
1:57 "NO! THIS CANNOT BE! AHHHRHHHH!!" 2:24 - Damn that's hot especially for someone who's 300+ years old. (Being a vampire can do that I guess) 8:53 - that's a lot of Castlevania Action in those hands. 10:53 - UPSIDE DOWN!! OH NO!! 18:14 (as Alucard) "But you probably won't listen to me, will you?" Love that.
trutrutrutrutrutrutrutrutrutru tru tru tru tru tru tru trutru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru tru trutru nope
Yeah, Aria Of Sorrow is like my favourite game of all time! That one needs so much more love! Harmony Of Dissonance was also enjoyable, but Circle Of The Moon was the one I had the least fun with
The mist transformation is actually super useful for traveling through the reverse clock tower and all those super annoying areas once you get the power of the mist and gas cloud particularly.
This was a game I went in nervous because I didn't know anything about the game. But upon playing it and overtime, quickly became my favourite game of all time. Now that's the special kind of games that can do that for me.
Love how this ended on the "hidden track" on the PSX version. I just bought Castlevania: Requiem on the Playstation store, and just finished the SOTN side.
Actually there are a lot of more true things in the world so I don’t know what your problem is dude have you read an English before lol 😂you are funny 😂
5:42 "The one you'll probably use the least is the mist transformation" Tell that to 7 year old me who thought this game was hell in the second castle and spammed mist whenever health was in the yellow just to get to a save room.
I like the Saturn version the best, despite its graphical errors; only because of the content it adds. The creator is openly disappointed in it, but I can not blame him. He expected this version to be FAR superior to the PSX version, which it SHOULD have been; but the team did a half-assed job with it. They added content in a very good way, in that I enjoyed all of it. Especially Cursed Prison, as it helped me navigate a certain area I felt needed a crossover bridge, complete with my favorite organ piece in the game; and for some reason, has ACTUAL transparency effects that this version was "not capable of" well, newsflash, they only put effort into the new areas and new enemies for those effects. Truthfully, the Saturn is capable of transparencies, something that many consider a myth. The system can do "partial transparencies" from what I understand, but they are generally the same deal when programmed correctly; namely, on the Saturn exclusive enemies. The team also had the 4MB of RAM available to them at the time, but did not even consider using it; hinting they probably cared less about how high quality the port was. The RAM would have guaranteed a lot of things, specifically: - No load times of the sorts. - Possibly even more animations to this already beautifully animated game. - No slowdowns. - Even more rooms into this already humongous castle. - Transparencies. - Areas that are not stretched, but look like much higher quality versions of their original counterparts. - NO HORRID MESH EFFECTS. - Maria's animal attacks having their awesome transparency effects from the opening stage, instead of horrible outlines. I could list more, but the list would be big. The short version of it is that the Saturn was HIGHLY capable of giving this game a blessing in disguise. By this, I mean the Saturn has lots of gems already that nobody knows about, but the disguise part comes from the fact that many hate the Saturn (the disguise), but would have came across this gorgeous remake (the blessing) and fell in love. But again, with a half-assed team doing the task, our expectations were shot down. Despite all of these reasons that you would expect should make me HATE this version, I still love it. Because well it has all these negatives, it has lots of other good things about it. Including, but not limited to: - New additions of music. - Utilizing the Saturn's separate sound integration feature well with the higher quality music and sounds. - New levels that look MUCH better than the rest of the castle, only because they were made for the Saturn. - Maria. - Richter's new costume. - New enemies. - Some awesome new weapons. - The most comfortable 2D pad for 2D games that make spell casting a BREEZE. There are just as many good reasons to acquire this port than there are bad. It suffers a lot, but makes up for it in very miniscule ways that you simply can not dislike. I would probably recommend the original first, even only if it has the cooler graphical effects thanks to not being a shoddy port. But, once you play through that, get the Saturn version, choose Maria and SUMMON THAT BLUE DRAGON AND KICK SOME ASS.
One of my favorites! I still have my original PS1 CD that I got for Xmas ‘97. I was really sick and spent a couple weeks in the hospital, but thankfully I had Symphony of the Night to help me get through. Some of my greatest video game memories are of this game. Thanks!
That was fantastic :) and i'm saying this as a long time SomeCallMeJohnny fan, that was one of your best vids in terms of pacing and writing. Just brilliant, you made me like Symphony of the night more than i already did, and its one of my favourite games of all time. And a console review is a friggin awesome idea
@@juliusbelmont350yeah but xbox and mobile symphony has differences that to me, make those playthroughs not as great as a ps1 run. The sounds are different in console versions than the original. That's a big thing for me.
I always admired how many enemie types there where in the castle nowadays they just recolor the same 5 enemies over and over again and each has its own castledex entry :D
So, I played and beat Symphony of the Night, and I have to say that I personally didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Personally, I liked Order of Ecclesia more (in terms of the Metroidvania formula), but I can see why everyone loves Symphony. Maybe because I played it on my PSP via Dracula X Chronicles had something to do with it. It's good, but admittedly very frustrating. My favorite game is Lament Of Innocence, because it's an origin story (which I always love), the atmosphere is great, and the music is amazing. I didn't grow up on the series, but I got into it because of these reviews. So, while I personally have gripes with Symphony, thank you Johnny for introducing me (and probably many others) to this great series of games!
Just finished the game for the first time... Man, absolutely masterful. I started out by playing all the preceding Castlevania games, and I can understand why this one was such a huge hit, apart from destroying everyone's expectations of what a "Castlevania" game could be. It was just a joy to play. And heck, even when it started to get a little easy due to all the leveling and equipment I'd acquired, it was still enjoyable because I went above and beyond to find that stuff, so I earned the satisfaction of obliterating everything in my path.
This video didn't surprise me at all John. I only had to record you gushing about it for hours in our BSC playthrough of it. I really probably should download it on the PS3 though, just so I can say I played it. Eh, I'll play some more Final Fantasy IX instead.
+williamsvpro Yea, I definitely agree. It's like it came out of nowhere considering, retrospectively, the impact it has had. Too bad major game makers since then haven't incorporated the great aspects of this game all that much into new games.
One reason not to play the Saturn one first is because much of the important text is in Japanese. You may not figure out that you're required to purchase the jewel of open, you won't know to equip two specific rings at a certain part of the game, and you won't know to equip the spike breaking armor (or that said armor even breaks spikes) to get past the long hallway in the chapel. Speaking from experience, the Saturn one was the first version I played through back in the day, and each of those parts caused extreme frustration and I had to resort to a walkthrough (that's not to mention I thought Richter was a normal character, so I started playing the game as him first.. oops). I do recommend playing the Saturn one, but only after being familiarized with the game and what you are supposed to do. Unless you speak Japanese, resort to a walkthrough or manage to make it through the game via dumb luck, it will be kind of frustrating.
Johnny, I just wanna say thanks for introducing me to Castlevannia series in whole. Got Symphony of the Night on my Vita. Love it and my favorite on is Super Castlevannia IV. Im a sucker for SNES games
Man, the wait for this video was certainly worth it. There's so many other half-assed reviews of this game out there that nearly always miss a huge amount of details about it (and sometimes even bashing it for lazy-minded and biased reasons... pfft), but you took enough love and care to actually mention everything that needs to be mentioned about it and give proper praise to all the bits that deserve it (aside from the needed mention of all the weaker points of the game, every single one of which I completely agree on). Loved that nice touch at the end with Alucard's sound byte from the hidden track, lol. *Great* freakin' job, Johnny. Can't wait for your console review - that's an awesome idea!
Thanks for this vid, Johnny. I didn't know Castlevania was that awesome... started playing it last week, reached the good and bad endings, and had a good time exploring the game. Really, thanks for your great review.
You're going to review the PS1 Console, that so awesome! Oh man I grew up with the PS1. Never grew up with the NES, SNES or Sega Genesis. REALLY looking forward to the review Johnny. :)
***** So having limited movility, along with insane damage ratios is certainly easy. Even if it's technically fair challenge it goes to the point it becomes discouraging. Inb4 I get a n elitist response saying I suck at the game
VladNorris You suck at the game because you have no patience. You CAN be really agile,or you CAN be a sluggish tank, it all depends on your playstyle. First-timers should stick to tank, keep your shield infront and observe the opponents pattern, then attack, there are only 2 bosses that don't get beaten by this strategy.
Apologies for being soo late to the party, but I loved this video. The Hidden Track at the end was an awesome kick in nostalgia. Just for this... I'm booting up my PSP and playing this again.... (for the 100th + time if not higher). Thank so much for sharing this with us. I'm now officially Subscribed. :)
One of my favorite reviews from Johnny in a long time. I think it helps a lot that he doesn't spend 15 minutes talking about the story. Which I don't think is bad by itself. but sometimes that can drag his reviews quite a bit =p
True story: This game came out around my birthday and I didn't know a lot about it but it sounded like something I wanted to buy. I went to a Funcoland with my birthday money and they didn't have a copy of the game...but they tried to sell me Nightmare Creatures instead, telling me it was like that game and showing me a bit of game play. I declined that purchase and found a store that did sell it. Best decision made ever, money well spent, game still works and so does the PSone.
any fans of symphony should definitely try the DS and GBA games..especially the sorrow games (aria and dawn of sorrow). they feel almost like direct sequels to symphony..and Soma from the sorrow games is even more of a versatile character than alucard due to being able to equip abilities from every enemy in the game
Itachi Uchiha I love aria of sorrows, but unfortunately I wasn't a fan of Dawn of Sorrows for a few reasons. which i'm not gonna say cause spoilers to anyone who hasn't play the game. And it's almost sad given I never knew castlevania till my brother got Dawn of Sorrows. and after watching AVGN's review of the series.
***** I can think of a few non-spoilery reasons why I don't like Dawn of Sorrow anywhere near as much as Aria. First, and I dunno if this is actually the case or just how I perceive it, but everything just feels so much SLOWER in Dawn. Soma moves and attacks more slowly. Enemies in general move and attack more slowly. When you defeat enemies, their souls fly at you more slowly. It's especially bad in the extra mode after you beat the game, since there's no way to move faster in that version. Second, getting everything is a lot more tedious in Dawn. Lots of souls are more powerful the more copies of them you have, so you have to kill those enemies a lot so you can get 9 of their souls. But souls are also used for upgrading weapons, so you have to kill even MORE enemies to get extra souls for weapon upgrades! And on top of moving and attacking feeling slower, there simply aren't any very efficient ways of killing certain monsters, which can make grinding for their souls even more of a pain. Especially if they have a low drop rate. In short, not only is there more grinding, but the grinding was also made more frustrating to do. Third is a more personal point, but I'm not a fan of a lot of Dawn's music. I liked some of it, like Condemned Tower, but stuff like Dracula's Tears, After Confession, and Underground Melodies kinda got on my nerves, which is a really big deal considering I love Castlevania soundtracks in general. Fourth, I'm really bad at drawing those seals that you need to draw or else the bosses revive with some of their health back when you kill them.
Megan Martin Drawing the seals aside. I didn't have much problem with that as much as people hate it. I can agree that we all wish that gimmick wasn't there. As for level grinding it's really a pain to try an get everything cause by the time your close to the last level you realize it's impossible to collect all the souls and upgrade every weapon to the max, which makes you have to play it again. I "sorta" didn't mind that some souls have a power level, but i can agree it's more painful to max every soul level especially if some enemies have a low soul percentage. I can think of 1-2 boss fights i'm not particularly fond of facing.
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and its sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, are amazing Metroidvanias in their own right, and the successors to Symphony of the Night. Also, its not exactly the same, but Dust: An Elysian Tail has all the armors and the upgrades and the hootinanny
All I have to say Johnny is thanks for introducing me to many series like Metroid, Castlevania, and Zelda. I wouldn't have experience these series without you. So may these reviews last til the end.
gosh is this video really 9 years old? goodness, as someone who now owns the XBLA and Requiem Versions of this game I can safely say it's a good time. I'm due for another playthrough at some point. and on top of that a Decomp project for SOTN is in the works too.
It got me interested in Castlevania this year. I have no nostalgia for the game but consider me impressed, both PS1 AND PSP. Several play throughs, Normal and Luck (both with and without Death Glitch) and still very fun.
In a quiet town, beneath a sky painted with twilight hues, two hearts converged in a dance of love. Alex and Jamie, both men, discovered their connection transcended societal norms. Their love was a symphony, echoing through the streets, a testament to courage and authenticity. They faced adversity, yet their love remained unyielding. Friends became allies, families embraced acceptance, and the town evolved. In each other's arms, they found refuge and strength. Their love story, one of resilience and unity, taught the town that love knows no bounds. Together, they painted the world with the vibrant colors of gay love, forever changing their lives and their community.
Been going back and playing the game boy advance games and really enjoying them! Would be sick if you eventually did like a portable CV marathon!! Hope the move went/going well!!
Thank you for this awesome review Johnny! Just finished the game for the first time and started my 2nd playthrough! Keep up the great work dude! Ohhhhh, still waiting for your dark souls marathon of reviews! Cheers from Greece!
+mitsos_misfits If you keep the save from the first playthrough (not sure if you have to get the real ending or not), copy the save file, then load it and rename while in the game to "Richter", you can play as richter which is the hardest version.
If it makes you feel any better Johnny, this video and your Rondo of Blood video convinced me to pick up the Dracula X Chronicles. I'm checking it out on Amazon and GameStop right now.
Symphony of the Night is absolutely incredible, in my top five games of all time, for sure, but seriously, this game is the word 'Cryptic' incarnate. Some of the stuff you're required to do to advance the game is just insane. I'd recommend it to anyone with great patience.
And 4 years later we got this awesome game on PS4 with trophy support. This was one of those classic games that I wish I knew about during the PS1 time. I already loved Metroid back then, so this would have been up there in nostalgia land had I played it before.
I heard the creator of this game was inspired to make this game open ended and replayable because he saw how many copies of the NES games were in bargain bins and for so little money. Wish developers today would do that. they see their game in the bargain bin...3 months after release. they shrug and go talk DLC.
Man what a great review. I remember getting this for my PS1 back in 1997. It came out Oct 31, 1997. Also got the original soundtrack as well. Truly one of the best Castlevanias of all time!!
never played any Castlevania game, love Symphony of the Night to death XD thank you, Johnny :') I always love watching your reviews and LP's and one day want to start an LP channel of my own.
Just wanted to say i appreciate the finer detailed comparisons to all of the different titles and cut content between them seeing as the new requiem re-re-release is coming. Little late here, but love all the many but short, descriptive clips on everything you were pointing out n had to comment. Shows you weren’t lazy about it and deserves being pointed out. Nice. Subbed ;)
Hey thank you for this review, I just learned a friend never heard of Castlevania and since SOTN is my favorite I was looking for reviews and yours was perfect for it.
Finally got to try this game for the first time today. It's... okay. So far. Haven't really found much yet in terms of weapons or whatever, but I'm getting there. Slowly. I just need some time to break the game in.
Oh, someone's probably already suggested it, but Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the Seven Devils is a pretty good Metroidvania. As well as Monster Tale for the DS.
Sound For Free Mindz There is.by putting a code in the name typing menu.watch the video and you'll see. put this as a name X-X!V''Q you'll start with 99 luck and will be a bit more challenging
When I first bought the game as a PlayStation Classic on the PlayStation 3 back in 2014, I was _enamored._ Thanks for getting me into Castlevania, John!
Alucard:"This castle is a creature of Chaos. It may take many incarnations."
Alucard(Translated):"This castle is a creature of Konami. It has to change to keep the game fresh and new."
Too bad that came to a screeching halt lol
@@-PV- too soon, fucker.😠😆
🤨😒Maybe if they'd release every CV game in America, that'd be great.😠😆
Resurrected with Bloodstained and it is too right.
Well this didn’t age well...
"And that's how I easily defeated Dracula once and for all!"
That's bullshit!
Kotori Birb Like mentioned in the video, this first battle is a retelling of Rondo of Bloods final boss.
In SotN, you can easily defeat him because Richter is just too damn powerful and has much better control compared to Rondo of Blood.
"And thats how i easily defeated Count Dracula once and for all" is in fact bullshit, because the final boss of RoB is much harder.
SotN made it look like Dracula was just a pushover
Guess who’s in Smash.
DatAlphaLion RICHTER!!!
@@ryasson1830 Nah, the final boss of RoB is very easy. The true final boss of the remake, on the other hand...
Damn it Johnny! This is the second video we've done on the same weekend! xD
Great job, brother. Loved it.
First like :)
My apologies good sir, :D Thanks dude.
....Am I the only one who hopes the both of you will do a collab review one day?
***** Especially since they just reviewed the same game.
YES.
I swear, if this does happen..I think my life will be complete.
"Dracula die now or leave this world, you'll never belong here."
V.s.
"Die monster you don't belong in this world"
"But you probably won't listen to me anyway, will you?"
*immediately searches through eBay for a PS1 copy*
Me: arrrg matey time to set sail
Then realizes the price
Well, to be fair, Dracula's voice actor sounded like he was enjoying himself. :P
Honestly, that make can make some cheese sound good. Also he can belt out a death scream. Not to mention his Bible verse quote
1:57 "NO! THIS CANNOT BE! AHHHRHHHH!!"
2:24 - Damn that's hot especially for someone who's 300+ years old. (Being a vampire can do that I guess)
8:53 - that's a lot of Castlevania Action in those hands.
10:53 - UPSIDE DOWN!! OH NO!!
18:14 (as Alucard) "But you probably won't listen to me, will you?"
Love that.
10:38 "This chick's out for fucking blood!"
*the screen clearly shows her attacks only doing 1 damage*
...Alright then.
In microliters.
***** That's my very first castlevania game and I really like it a lot so spend $10 and play it.
***** I'm gonna bet Lewis.
One step at a time ted. One step at a time.
Holy Mail Ted, Holy Mail. Makes Richter and Maria impotent.
Thank you Alucard. But the Prince is in another castle...
+Vehrn321 that's gay
+Elijah Ortiz okay...
Connor Edwards I rather play sonic 06 then talk
Elijah Ortiz That's an insult.
Vehrn321 I know..................I think
"and thats how I easily defeted count dracula once and for all" "THATS BULLSHIT" XD
I just tested the video myself a few minutes ago and it was working just fine. If this keeps occurring, I'll begin the re-upload process.
***** But now it's not even loading for me. This Error shit is really aggravating at times.
Working so far, but we'll see I guess.
Spin around in your chair really fast and maybe it'll work then :P.
SomecallmeJohnny This happens to ReviewTechUSA about 90% of the time. You are not alone.
It says there's an error and doesn't specify which is it
One thing about the credits song that Johnny kind of dismissed, it's actually done by Cynthia Harrell,
You know...
SNAAAAKE EEAATEEEEER!
Praise Shaft, is the video working for everyone now?
YEEEEESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so about that Ghost 'N Goblins... :D
Yes!
PSST ,Hey, Johnny, play monster hunter 3 ultimate after your console review. :D
WE DRINK THE THE GHOST OF THE GHOST OF THE DARK PRIEST SHAFT!
I really like Johnny's "Oh No!" part when the Inverted Castle appears. I don't really know why, but I find it funny.
Why
Konami...how the might have fallen
Monty2289 More like rocketing downward
more like sank to the bottom of the Abyss like a rock tied to an anvil.
+AlucardJ1977 Is that Arikdao in your profile picture? :)
***** I gotta admit. I'm straight and I still think that Genya Arikado is sexy. No homo, though.
Can confirm. Still massive cocks
Imagine a Symphony Of The Night remake with the asthetics of the Castlevania material featured in Smash Ultimate.
Imagine you getting bitches
Please don't give me hope
Aw come on, who doesn't love the original voicework from this game? "Your words are as empty as your soul!"
What is a man?
@@OrtadragoonX A miserable little pile of secrets!
Fun Fact: SotN was built on a 3D engine, which is why the Saturn port was so underpowed
"And That's how I defeated Dracula once and for All!"(THAT'S BULLSHIT in background)-SomecallmeJohnny 2014 LOL
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Did u even watch the vid?
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nope
:P
Watch it
Hilarious
My favorite game of all time. To me everything about it is perfect.
Wrong it’s not your favorite game
I loved the ending theme: 'I am the wind." Made me cry the first time.
Please review the GBA Castlevanias!
I've been waiting for 3 years Johnny. 3 years!
IMO those are probably some of the weaker titles in the series (discounting the infamous LoS trilogy, of course).
IMO, No. :P
Yeah, Aria Of Sorrow is like my favourite game of all time! That one needs so much more love! Harmony Of Dissonance was also enjoyable, but Circle Of The Moon was the one I had the least fun with
Come on, Johnny! Give us more Castlevania reviews!
The mist transformation is actually super useful for traveling through the reverse clock tower and all those super annoying areas once you get the power of the mist and gas cloud particularly.
This was a game I went in nervous because I didn't know anything about the game. But upon playing it and overtime, quickly became my favourite game of all time. Now that's the special kind of games that can do that for me.
"In about 10 seconds flat"
This is why I love you, and you're almost at 100, 000 subs, congrats dude!
Love how this ended on the "hidden track" on the PSX version.
I just bought Castlevania: Requiem on the Playstation store, and just finished the SOTN side.
"That whip-dangly-thingy". Truer words were never spoken.
Actually there are a lot of more true things in the world so I don’t know what your problem is dude have you read an English before lol 😂you are funny 😂
5:42 "The one you'll probably use the least is the mist transformation"
Tell that to 7 year old me who thought this game was hell in the second castle and spammed mist whenever health was in the yellow just to get to a save room.
One of my all time favorite games I remember playing this back in 1999 when I was 10 ive played it countless times and still love it.
Great game. Beat it twice this week. This and rondo of blood are my two favorite castlevania games. Both in my top 10 favorite games of all time
I"m playing symphony of the night right now and omg this game is awesome
how is it now
Idk but I’m gonna buy that mf’er and play it somehow
Sooooooo good, even now
Welp, you finished it, twas pretty good
"But you probably won't listen to me anyway will you?" Damn good one johnny!
I like the Saturn version the best, despite its graphical errors; only because of the content it adds. The creator is openly disappointed in it, but I can not blame him. He expected this version to be FAR superior to the PSX version, which it SHOULD have been; but the team did a half-assed job with it. They added content in a very good way, in that I enjoyed all of it.
Especially Cursed Prison, as it helped me navigate a certain area I felt needed a crossover bridge, complete with my favorite organ piece in the game; and for some reason, has ACTUAL transparency effects that this version was "not capable of" well, newsflash, they only put effort into the new areas and new enemies for those effects.
Truthfully, the Saturn is capable of transparencies, something that many consider a myth. The system can do "partial transparencies" from what I understand, but they are generally the same deal when programmed correctly; namely, on the Saturn exclusive enemies. The team also had the 4MB of RAM available to them at the time, but did not even consider using it; hinting they probably cared less about how high quality the port was.
The RAM would have guaranteed a lot of things, specifically:
- No load times of the sorts.
- Possibly even more animations to this already beautifully animated game.
- No slowdowns.
- Even more rooms into this already humongous castle.
- Transparencies.
- Areas that are not stretched, but look like much higher quality versions of their original counterparts.
- NO HORRID MESH EFFECTS.
- Maria's animal attacks having their awesome transparency effects from the opening stage, instead of horrible outlines.
I could list more, but the list would be big.
The short version of it is that the Saturn was HIGHLY capable of giving this game a blessing in disguise. By this, I mean the Saturn has lots of gems already that nobody knows about, but the disguise part comes from the fact that many hate the Saturn (the disguise), but would have came across this gorgeous remake (the blessing) and fell in love.
But again, with a half-assed team doing the task, our expectations were shot down. Despite all of these reasons that you would expect should make me HATE this version, I still love it. Because well it has all these negatives, it has lots of other good things about it. Including, but not limited to:
- New additions of music.
- Utilizing the Saturn's separate sound integration feature well with the higher quality music and sounds.
- New levels that look MUCH better than the rest of the castle, only because they were made for the Saturn.
- Maria.
- Richter's new costume.
- New enemies.
- Some awesome new weapons.
- The most comfortable 2D pad for 2D games that make spell casting a BREEZE.
There are just as many good reasons to acquire this port than there are bad. It suffers a lot, but makes up for it in very miniscule ways that you simply can not dislike. I would probably recommend the original first, even only if it has the cooler graphical effects thanks to not being a shoddy port. But, once you play through that, get the Saturn version, choose Maria and SUMMON THAT BLUE DRAGON AND KICK SOME ASS.
+Medachod no
littlejoe145 don't care
+Medachod You lady, get a cookie for being one of the few smart AND calm people on the internet
Mario&Luigi More specifcally, UA-cam :P the forums I post in are much calmer than any argument I have ever had on UA-cam.
u want a good example of transparency, look no further than Sonic 3D Blast/Flickies Island
One of my favorites! I still have my original PS1 CD that I got for Xmas ‘97. I was really sick and spent a couple weeks in the hospital, but thankfully I had Symphony of the Night to help me get through. Some of my greatest video game memories are of this game. Thanks!
The “ONLY UPSIDE DOWN!” part scared me so badly
fun fact Alucard is Dracula backwards
That means something
+Wizard King ya don't say
+Wizard King thank you for pointing out the obvious, moron!
Ethan Ciotti I did not know
Wizard King Wow, didn't know that. Awesome.
the inverted castle blew my mind when i first encountered it, but after about 15 minutes it lost its luster fast
That was fantastic :) and i'm saying this as a long time SomeCallMeJohnny fan, that was one of your best vids in terms of pacing and writing. Just brilliant, you made me like Symphony of the night more than i already did, and its one of my favourite games of all time. And a console review is a friggin awesome idea
Why bro you don’t know a thing about
The vania I am sure you probably can’t do it again lol buddy 😂
Johnny: "You go play Symphony of the Night. But you probably won't listen to me anyway, will you?"
18:14 That is the single greatest thing he's said in any of his videos to date XD
SoTN has one of the best soundtracks of all time. I actually bought the damn cd from amazon. I still play that shit today.
Old ps1 games store their music in cd form so if you wanted to listen to the soundtrack you should just pop the actual game in a cd player
@@theemeraldbeast2506 The actual game is WAY more expensive than the soundtrack cd, 20-30 bucks for the soundtrack, NEW and sealed!
@@juliusbelmont350yeah but xbox and mobile symphony has differences that to me, make those playthroughs not as great as a ps1 run. The sounds are different in console versions than the original. That's a big thing for me.
I always admired how many enemie types there where in the castle nowadays they just recolor the same 5 enemies over and over again and each has its own castledex entry :D
So, I played and beat Symphony of the Night, and I have to say that I personally didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Personally, I liked Order of Ecclesia more (in terms of the Metroidvania formula), but I can see why everyone loves Symphony. Maybe because I played it on my PSP via Dracula X Chronicles had something to do with it. It's good, but admittedly very frustrating. My favorite game is Lament Of Innocence, because it's an origin story (which I always love), the atmosphere is great, and the music is amazing. I didn't grow up on the series, but I got into it because of these reviews. So, while I personally have gripes with Symphony, thank you Johnny for introducing me (and probably many others) to this great series of games!
Ah... My favorite 2D side-scrolling game. It blew my mind when I saw an article in a gaming magazine in 1998.
Just played and finished this recently for the first time on PS4, absolutely loved it and I am hooked on the Metroidvania genre after playing this!
Damn this game is gonna be 20 years old!
No
Just finished the game for the first time... Man, absolutely masterful. I started out by playing all the preceding Castlevania games, and I can understand why this one was such a huge hit, apart from destroying everyone's expectations of what a "Castlevania" game could be. It was just a joy to play. And heck, even when it started to get a little easy due to all the leveling and equipment I'd acquired, it was still enjoyable because I went above and beyond to find that stuff, so I earned the satisfaction of obliterating everything in my path.
I think you’re lying bro you are definitely lying
@@keebs5780what are you talking about?
@@Dravianpn02 he’s lying
@@keebs5780 about what?
@@Dravianpn02 he literally lied in the post dude he didn’t do that I don’t know why he would do this but it’s messed up
This video didn't surprise me at all John. I only had to record you gushing about it for hours in our BSC playthrough of it. I really probably should download it on the PS3 though, just so I can say I played it. Eh, I'll play some more Final Fantasy IX instead.
You...never...played it?
Play it. Becuase i think johnnys review said enough.
Play the game Ryan! Also, It's BSC is "your" main channel at this point since you didn't upload any videos on your own channel 2+ years ago?
SomecallmeJohnny Feel Betrayed John?
SomecallmeJohnny i've played it and i find it a wonderful game, i still have it on my psp from the psn and it was well worth the money
Hands down my favourite game on the PS1 and probably my favourite game in the series. :).
+williamsvpro Yea, I definitely agree. It's like it came out of nowhere considering, retrospectively, the impact it has had. Too bad major game makers since then haven't incorporated the great aspects of this game all that much into new games.
"First Castlevania game I ever beat."
-Somecallmejohhny
Same here man in fact, I just beat it! Yay!
In fact, same here too!
Same here as well!!
Same man this game made love the castlevania franchise
Same
One reason not to play the Saturn one first is because much of the important text is in Japanese. You may not figure out that you're required to purchase the jewel of open, you won't know to equip two specific rings at a certain part of the game, and you won't know to equip the spike breaking armor (or that said armor even breaks spikes) to get past the long hallway in the chapel. Speaking from experience, the Saturn one was the first version I played through back in the day, and each of those parts caused extreme frustration and I had to resort to a walkthrough (that's not to mention I thought Richter was a normal character, so I started playing the game as him first.. oops). I do recommend playing the Saturn one, but only after being familiarized with the game and what you are supposed to do. Unless you speak Japanese, resort to a walkthrough or manage to make it through the game via dumb luck, it will be kind of frustrating.
Johnny, I just wanna say thanks for introducing me to Castlevannia series in whole. Got Symphony of the Night on my Vita. Love it and my favorite on is Super Castlevannia IV. Im a sucker for SNES games
Can I just get a Castlevania Collection, Konami? Please? Follow Capcom's example. But don't split the collections.
ppedro2112 I actually got an ad for that before this video started.
Looks like they're doing the Johnny method and putting Rondo of Blood alongside Symphony of the Night
For little over $20, that's a good deal
@ppedro2112 I agree, but the new voice acting has grown on me to be honest.
@@michaelrhett4958 Me too.
Bro you are gonna shit your pants theres a Castlevania Anniversary Collection coming
Man, the wait for this video was certainly worth it. There's so many other half-assed reviews of this game out there that nearly always miss a huge amount of details about it (and sometimes even bashing it for lazy-minded and biased reasons... pfft), but you took enough love and care to actually mention everything that needs to be mentioned about it and give proper praise to all the bits that deserve it (aside from the needed mention of all the weaker points of the game, every single one of which I completely agree on). Loved that nice touch at the end with Alucard's sound byte from the hidden track, lol.
*Great* freakin' job, Johnny. Can't wait for your console review - that's an awesome idea!
finally beat this game, thanks for recommending it a while back. 200.3%
Thanks for this vid, Johnny.
I didn't know Castlevania was that awesome... started playing it last week, reached the good and bad endings, and had a good time exploring the game.
Really, thanks for your great review.
Years later, still replaying it occasionally.
You're going to review the PS1 Console, that so awesome! Oh man I grew up with the PS1. Never grew up with the NES, SNES or Sega Genesis. REALLY looking forward to the review Johnny. :)
I know one game that's structured like this that is neither Metroid nor Castlevania. And I think you do too.
Dark Souls.
Dark Souls is pretty crippling in the control scheme and it's at times unnecessarily hard.
VladNorris
what? Buuullshit, the controlls are fine and it's only hard because you make it hard.
*****
So having limited movility, along with insane damage ratios is certainly easy.
Even if it's technically fair challenge it goes to the point it becomes discouraging. Inb4 I get a n elitist response saying I suck at the game
VladNorris You suck at the game because you have no patience. You CAN be really agile,or you CAN be a sluggish tank, it all depends on your playstyle.
First-timers should stick to tank, keep your shield infront and observe the opponents pattern, then attack, there are only 2 bosses that don't get beaten by this strategy.
***** Exactly the shit I expected you to say.
Apologies for being soo late to the party, but I loved this video. The Hidden Track at the end was an awesome kick in nostalgia. Just for this... I'm booting up my PSP and playing this again.... (for the 100th + time if not higher). Thank so much for sharing this with us. I'm now officially Subscribed. :)
One of my favorite reviews from Johnny in a long time.
I think it helps a lot that he doesn't spend 15 minutes talking about the story.
Which I don't think is bad by itself. but sometimes that can drag his reviews quite a bit =p
True story: This game came out around my birthday and I didn't know a lot about it but it sounded like something I wanted to buy. I went to a Funcoland with my birthday money and they didn't have a copy of the game...but they tried to sell me Nightmare Creatures instead, telling me it was like that game and showing me a bit of game play. I declined that purchase and found a store that did sell it. Best decision made ever, money well spent, game still works and so does the PSone.
any fans of symphony should definitely try the DS and GBA games..especially the sorrow games (aria and dawn of sorrow). they feel almost like direct sequels to symphony..and Soma from the sorrow games is even more of a versatile character than alucard due to being able to equip abilities from every enemy in the game
Itachi Uchiha A megaman of the castlevania games? Where do I sign?
Itachi Uchiha I love aria of sorrows, but unfortunately I wasn't a fan of Dawn of Sorrows for a few reasons. which i'm not gonna say cause spoilers to anyone who hasn't play the game. And it's almost sad given I never knew castlevania till my brother got Dawn of Sorrows. and after watching AVGN's review of the series.
***** I can think of a few non-spoilery reasons why I don't like Dawn of Sorrow anywhere near as much as Aria.
First, and I dunno if this is actually the case or just how I perceive it, but everything just feels so much SLOWER in Dawn. Soma moves and attacks more slowly. Enemies in general move and attack more slowly. When you defeat enemies, their souls fly at you more slowly. It's especially bad in the extra mode after you beat the game, since there's no way to move faster in that version.
Second, getting everything is a lot more tedious in Dawn. Lots of souls are more powerful the more copies of them you have, so you have to kill those enemies a lot so you can get 9 of their souls. But souls are also used for upgrading weapons, so you have to kill even MORE enemies to get extra souls for weapon upgrades! And on top of moving and attacking feeling slower, there simply aren't any very efficient ways of killing certain monsters, which can make grinding for their souls even more of a pain. Especially if they have a low drop rate. In short, not only is there more grinding, but the grinding was also made more frustrating to do.
Third is a more personal point, but I'm not a fan of a lot of Dawn's music. I liked some of it, like Condemned Tower, but stuff like Dracula's Tears, After Confession, and Underground Melodies kinda got on my nerves, which is a really big deal considering I love Castlevania soundtracks in general.
Fourth, I'm really bad at drawing those seals that you need to draw or else the bosses revive with some of their health back when you kill them.
Megan Martin Drawing the seals aside. I didn't have much problem with that as much as people hate it. I can agree that we all wish that gimmick wasn't there.
As for level grinding it's really a pain to try an get everything cause by the time your close to the last level you realize it's impossible to collect all the souls and upgrade every weapon to the max, which makes you have to play it again. I "sorta" didn't mind that some souls have a power level, but i can agree it's more painful to max every soul level especially if some enemies have a low soul percentage.
I can think of 1-2 boss fights i'm not particularly fond of facing.
Itachi Uchiha Yeah, I beat Aria, it's a great game, and I prefer it over SotN. Thanks Itachi!
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and its sequel, Dawn of Sorrow, are amazing Metroidvanias in their own right, and the successors to Symphony of the Night. Also, its not exactly the same, but Dust: An Elysian Tail has all the armors and the upgrades and the hootinanny
All I have to say Johnny is thanks for introducing me to many series like Metroid, Castlevania, and Zelda. I wouldn't have experience these series without you. So may these reviews last til the end.
Adding funds to my PSN account and getting this bad boy on my Vita first thing tomorrow! It's gonna look great on that screen!
Looks like Castlevania is finally in Smash!!
I love this game. One of my all time favorites.
11:13 yeah right, I thought the upside down castle thing was genius.
Thank you for using the hidden music track, I'm glad someone else remembers it.
Try out Shadow Complex and Rush 'n Attack remake on the XBLA.
gosh is this video really 9 years old? goodness, as someone who now owns the XBLA and Requiem Versions of this game I can safely say it's a good time. I'm due for another playthrough at some point. and on top of that a Decomp project for SOTN is in the works too.
Maria is definitely my hard mode.
It got me interested in Castlevania this year. I have no nostalgia for the game but consider me impressed, both PS1 AND PSP. Several play throughs, Normal and Luck (both with and without Death Glitch) and still very fun.
In a quiet town, beneath a sky painted with twilight hues, two hearts converged in a dance of love. Alex and Jamie, both men, discovered their connection transcended societal norms. Their love was a symphony, echoing through the streets, a testament to courage and authenticity.
They faced adversity, yet their love remained unyielding. Friends became allies, families embraced acceptance, and the town evolved. In each other's arms, they found refuge and strength. Their love story, one of resilience and unity, taught the town that love knows no bounds. Together, they painted the world with the vibrant colors of gay love, forever changing their lives and their community.
John: When you hear for the 68th time-
Me: darn, he was so close to the funny number!
Actually, my first Metroidvania for the Castlevania games was Aria of Sorrow!
^-^
Been going back and playing the game boy advance games and really enjoying them! Would be sick if you eventually did like a portable CV marathon!! Hope the move went/going well!!
Thank you for this awesome review Johnny! Just finished the game for the first time and started my 2nd playthrough! Keep up the great work dude! Ohhhhh, still waiting for your dark souls marathon of reviews! Cheers from Greece!
+mitsos_misfits If you keep the save from the first playthrough (not sure if you have to get the real ending or not), copy the save file, then load it and rename while in the game to "Richter", you can play as richter which is the hardest version.
The voice at the end scared me a bit you definitely got me Johnny!
If it makes you feel any better Johnny, this video and your Rondo of Blood video convinced me to pick up the Dracula X Chronicles. I'm checking it out on Amazon and GameStop right now.
Symphony of the Night is absolutely incredible, in my top five games of all time, for sure, but seriously, this game is the word 'Cryptic' incarnate. Some of the stuff you're required to do to advance the game is just insane. I'd recommend it to anyone with great patience.
Those fairies are SO cute!
and maria.......
omygod maria.
Megaman ZX and Megaman Z, you've probably gotten tons of recommendations but the Zero and ZX Series will be a joy if you enjoy Castlevania. :)
Wow. I had no idea about most of those abilities, I have been having the roughest time trying to play this game! Thank you so much!
And 4 years later we got this awesome game on PS4 with trophy support.
This was one of those classic games that I wish I knew about during the PS1 time. I already loved Metroid back then, so this would have been up there in nostalgia land had I played it before.
I heard the creator of this game was inspired to make this game open ended and replayable because he saw how many copies of the NES games were in bargain bins and for so little money. Wish developers today would do that. they see their game in the bargain bin...3 months after release. they shrug and go talk DLC.
The gba and ds games are long overdue Johnny.
I always thought that the Megaman ZX & ZX Advent felt a bit like this and metroids due to structure. But obviously it is NOT for everyone.
Man what a great review. I remember getting this for my PS1 back in 1997. It came out Oct 31, 1997. Also got the original soundtrack as well. Truly one of the best Castlevanias of all time!!
Your reviews just keep getting better man! Keep up the fantastic work.
never played any Castlevania game, love Symphony of the Night to death XD
thank you, Johnny :') I always love watching your reviews and LP's and one day want to start an LP channel of my own.
Damn these ads. "But you probably won't listen to- SPAGHETTI MARINARA"
What s a game?
A little miserable pile of glitches !
But enough whipping, have at you !
Just wanted to say i appreciate the finer detailed comparisons to all of the different titles and cut content between them seeing as the new requiem re-re-release is coming. Little late here, but love all the many but short, descriptive clips on everything you were pointing out n had to comment. Shows you weren’t lazy about it and deserves being pointed out. Nice. Subbed ;)
Hey thank you for this review, I just learned a friend never heard of Castlevania and since SOTN is my favorite I was looking for reviews and yours was perfect for it.
Finally got to try this game for the first time today.
It's... okay. So far. Haven't really found much yet in terms of weapons or whatever, but I'm getting there. Slowly. I just need some time to break the game in.
Oh, someone's probably already suggested it, but Bunny Must Die! Chelsea and the Seven Devils is a pretty good Metroidvania. As well as Monster Tale for the DS.
Just finished it. It has one big flaw: Its difficulty! No challenge whatsoever.
I prefer this game over the first one
Sound For Free Mindz Try hard mode
xWagnerPlaguesx hard mode? Im aware there's no hard mode on psx
Sound For Free Mindz
There is.by putting a code in the name typing menu.watch the video and you'll see. put this as a name X-X!V''Q you'll start with 99 luck and will be a bit more challenging
xWagnerPlaguesx ok thanks!
When I first bought the game as a PlayStation Classic on the PlayStation 3 back in 2014, I was _enamored._ Thanks for getting me into Castlevania, John!
you've just been added to my all time favorites